The task was to create a new symbol for the southern Swedish city of Malmö. What could that be we asked our selves and started thinking: Turning Torso, the just finished Highrise by the spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, times three?

No- we looked for unused potentials of the city and found them in its waterfronts, which are many places unused or not leading to street life, not connecting the spatial potential to vitalizing function.

So we came up with a catalyst, an easy to implement and easy to adapt solution: Floating Islands in a honeycomb shape.

These islands should have a special status, a free zone, were certain rules are not applied or are changed and tested. The island like a pirate island, where opening hours, tax and insurance matters can be treated differently for a period of legal adventure.

Malmö Islands would be a synonym for a progressive, daring urban development agenda of an upcoming local metropolis. It has the potential of a political showcase, the malmö model. Many cities in europe face similar challenges in dealing with their post industrial waterfronts. High prize development is just one possible answer.

Viral and humming cultural uses do seldomly stem from this type of development. Malmö Islands would be the possibility of integrating high culture and alternative drive.